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The Need to Achieve a Calm Equality Not Shaken By Outward Happenings · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  If we examine our reactions to circumstances that occur daily
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  in our lives, we will see we generally go through a range of
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  feelings, from elation when something we deem positive
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  occurs, to depression when it seems like the house is falling
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  in on us. Major events such as
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  achievements in school, falling in love and getting married,
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  having children, developing a successful career, enjoying
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  amazing travel opportunities, spending time with loved ones
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  all create feelings of pleasure or joy.
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  When we fall ill, or we lose a loved one, or experience a major
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  traumatic event, lose a job, suffer through a divorce, we
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  experience pain and grief. It is difficult to imagine, when
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  we reflect on all these life events and our reactions to
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  them, how we are supposed to accept all of them, positive and
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  negative alike, with an equality that treats them both with not
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  only forbearance and acceptance, but with a calm and tranquil
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  evenness of temper, much less with a sense of joyfulness at
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  the gift the Divine is giving us at that moment.
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  Every once in a while we get a glimpse of the state of
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  equality, and we understand that it is not only possible but
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  achievable if we find a way to separate our awareness from the
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  external surface personality and observe it from a standpoint of
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  a neutral observer. A young individual related a
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  story from his time at Trior Bindo Ashram in 1973.
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  He received a message from the mother for his birthday which
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  indicated live within, be not shaken by outward happenings.
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  He reported that he walked around the entire day in a state
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  of almost trance like abstraction.
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  That evening he slept and dreamt that there was a great darkness,
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  and then suddenly an intense light illuminated everything in
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  the dream, and he woke with a feeling that some great event
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  had occurred. He went to the ashram only to
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  find that all the lights were on.
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  It was still dark early morning before sunrise, and people were
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  milling around in the streets. He soon learned that the mother
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  had left her body. People were crying and stricken
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  with emotion. He felt strangely abstracted
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  from everything and heard a voice inwardly that said live
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  within, be not shaken by outward happenings.
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  Over the next few days he remained in that state and
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  watched the events unfold as people came from all over the
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  world with tears and grief, only to come away from the darshan of
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  the Mother at peace and with their grief removed.
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  He felt this was a grace to be shown how equality was not only
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  possible but could be experienced in actual real life
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  situations. Srioro Bindo observes quote.
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  To be free from all preference and receive joyfully whatever
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  comes from the Divine will is not possible at first for any
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  human being. What one should have at first is
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  the constant idea that what the Divine wills is always for the
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  best, even when the mind does not see how it is so to accept
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  with resignation what 1 cannot yet accept with gladness, and so
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  to arrive at a calm equality which is not shaken even when on
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  the surface there may be passing movements of a momentary
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  reaction to outward happenings. If that is once firmly founded,
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  the rest can come and quote. Reference Srioro Bindu and the
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  Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and
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  Circumstances, pages 28 to 29.